In air traffic control (ATC), striking a balance between safety and innovation is of the utmost importance. Madison James speaks to two companies active in the ATC market to find out how they are navigating this evolving landscape
While a digital ATC tower may sound like a highly futuristic concept, this year marks the 20th anniversary of Searidge Technologies, a pioneer of this technology. It all started in 2006, when co-founders Moodie Cheikh and Alex Sauriol identified the ATC sector as an area ripe for innovation.
“We saw a real opportunity to do something to relieve congestion on the ground,” says Cheikh.
The two entrepreneurs were not yet industry experts, so they formed an advisory group partly made up of former employees from NAV CANADA, a Tier One air navigation service provider (ANSP), facilitated by their proximity to the organisation’s Ottawa headquarters. One clear goal emerged: using advanced technology to drive efficiency on the airfield. From this, the idea for the digital tower was born.
A digital ATC tower is an alternative to a traditional analogue tower, in which air traffic controllers rely on direct observation and radio communications to direct aircraft. It instead uses a combination of high-definition cameras, sensors, and data networks to monitor the airfield.
Crucially, the technology enables remote observation, allowing the tower to fill in any blind spots an analogue tower may have, act as a back-up in case of emergency, or even replace an analogue tower altogether. To encompass this variety of solutions, Searidge has developed five different digital tower models.
The company initially faced some challenges when developing the technology, stemming from the fact that it was ahead of its time. While high-definition camera capabilities are now available and AI has become widespread, two decades ago the industry looked very different.
“At the time, video was nowhere near what it is today,” Cheikh says. “Radar and multilateration were just starting to gain market share, but we knew there was more that could be done, and so that’s how we started on that track.
“We didn’t really see digital towers as they are today,” he admits. “We didn’t see the future of fully digitalising the airfield, but we did know that a combination of sensor technology and leveraging video was going to be part of the answer.”
Most recently, Searidge’s digital ATC towers have been deployed and certified by regulators at Hamad International Airport, and at Vigo-Peinador Airport. Its most major deployment is at Hong Kong International Airport, which currently hosts the world’s largest and most complex Digital Apron and Tower Management System.
Traditional remote tower technology can enable airports to consolidate several different facilities into one centre, known as a hub, allowing users to control or deliver service. As a result, it cuts construction costs for new facilities while streamlining workforce operations.
“There are controller shortages and personnel shortages all around the world, and so the ability to be able to leverage your human resources is a really big deal,” Cheikh points out.
At the other end of the spectrum, the super-high-tech digital tower offered by Searidge can drive advanced applications by integrating the rich data set collected during air traffic operations.
“You’re not necessarily moving the controllers off site, although sometimes that is the case,” Cheikh says. “Typically for a large digital tower, it really is about digitalising the environment.”
The company has been developing AI programs for the past 12 years, which crucially require data to train algorithms. Searidge’s AI engine, Aimee, is integrated into most of the products across its portfolio, and is used to track aircraft and vehicles on the airfield, improving safety.
“28 times per second, Aimee is watching that airplane and making sure it knows exactly when the tail has cleared the runway,” Cheikh says. Moreover, the system supports runway incursion prevention. “It knows exactly where the nose of the aircraft is, everywhere on the airfield.”
Despite the safety benefits, it can be challenging to cultivate trust when introducing innovation to a risk-averse industry.
“It’s often said that it takes years and years to build trust, and it can take seconds to lose it,” Cheikh says.
“The whole industry is based around trust and safety. So, we’re not just selling technology, it’s a safety system, it’s trust. We work very closely with our ANSP partners, and sometimes it takes a long time to get to the point where an ANSP is comfortable to move into that digital tower space.
“I look at technologies like radar that have been around for a long, long time […] It’s just something that we use today, but it takes a long time to get there,” he adds.
For this reason, Searidge complies strictly with regulatory standards for ATC software and remote tower systems published by the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE), as well as directives being developed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). In addition, various safety protocols are built into Searidge’s digital towers, including constant monitoring to ensure that the information presented to the controller reflects what is happening on the airfield.
According to Cheikh, demand for digital towers is especially high in the Middle East and Asia, regions with high growth and fewer obstacles to deployment.
“There’s a new generation of operators and air traffic controllers that have been brought up in the digital age, and there is this real appetite for innovation,” he says.
However, air traffic control processes must be standardised across the world, rendering global expansion of Searidge’s products a challenge. The company is now wholly owned by NATS, a Tier One ANSP, which Cheikh says helped the company gain additional credibility and expertise.
“We were able to identify a number of early adopters […] rather than trying to wait for the entire industry to jump at once,” Cheikh says. “From there, digital towers have proliferated. It’s no longer seen as risky or new. That tipping point has happened, and we’re seeing most ANSPs now have programmes for digital towers.”
Manchester Airport is currently in the early stages of deploying a digital tower, drawing on research from the lab system Searidge and NATS launched at Heathrow Airport control tower in 2018. Cheikh says that allowing controllers to interact with the technology and provide feedback has been highly valuable.
“The closer a software developer is to an air traffic controller, the higher the chance of success in actually deploying that innovation,” he says.
Over the past 18 months, Searidge has focused on advancing its AI technology and driving interoperability within the sector, which involves moving from monolithic technology to an open platform. It is through this initiative that the company developed its data platform, Chorus, which Cheikh expects will be adopted by more ANSPs and airports as the aviation sector continues to tackle external pressures, including increasing capacity demands, the need to leverage data for advanced applications such as AI, rising costs and cyber security threats.
“An open platform approach is absolutely the right thing for the industry, and it’s just going to be a matter now of how quickly the industry can adopt it,” he says.
Looking ahead, Cheikh says conditions for innovation in the ATC sector are increasingly favourable, pointing to the US’s recently announced multi-billion dollar overhaul of its ATC systems as evidence of a growing focus on modernisation.
“I think from an innovation standpoint, it is different today than it was even five years ago,” he says. “We are definitely seeing more and more of our customers are actually asking us, what’s on your roadmap? In the past, I never used to hear that question.”
“Regardless of what you think will happen in the US, one thing that’s undeniable is there’s a lot of […] funding out there. Companies are going to come, and they’re going to show up with applications,” he adds.
“Searidge is known as a bit of an innovator in the industry. So, I think the future looks good for the industry, and certainly looks good for us.”
CAE’s training technology
With training locations in over 40 countries, CAE is a world-leading provider of aviation training and simulation solutions. Its high-fidelity flight simulators support the training of 135,000 pilots each year, as well as 85,000 flight crew members.
January 2025 marked the Canada-based organisation’s move into a new aviation market: air traffic services training. That month, it opened its first-ever Air Traffic Services Training Centre (ATSTC) on its campus in Montreal, Canada, a significant development at a period in which the industry is tackling a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers globally.
“It’s a natural expansion of what CAE does in aeronautics training,” says Sandra Rouphael, director of business performance and ATS Training at CAE. “Our vision is to expand the training worldwide, and to complement it with the technologies we already use on the civil and defence side.”
At Airspace Asia Pacific 2025 late last year, CAE announced that it was applying its pioneering CAE Ridge platform to its air traffic services training offering. The immersive tabletop tool allows instructors to demonstrate in three dimensions how aircraft arrive at an airport, zoom in and out, and create scenarios.
The technology innovates a process that is typically done with physical tabletop models or 2D computer diagrams, particularly supporting familiarisation of a new airport when an air traffic controller begins on-the-job training. It also enables students to access their training remotely.
CAE Ridge is already well established within the company’s defence and security department, but remains at the proof-of-concept stage for ATC training. Using Honolulu Airport as a template, the platform was demonstrated at Airspace Asia Pacific 2025 and received “only positive comments” from customers and visitors, according to Rouphael.
The platform is customisable depending on individual client requirements, supported by CAE’s existing library of 3D airport models. Following “great discussions” with several customers in Hong Kong, CAE Ridge is now undergoing further development ahead of its official launch.
CAE plans to train 500 air traffic controllers by 2028, in partnership with NAV CANADA. CAE is also collaborating with the Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic (ANS CR) to expand its training network across Europe. “We are trying to help with the European shortage [of air traffic controllers] by using the strength of our two organisations to expand the training,” says Rouphael.
“We are able to create training within the region and all the countries needed. So instead of the student moving to Prague to study, CAE already has facilities across Europe that we are going to be able to leverage.
“We’re also going to create also a modernised framework with ANS CR, to be able to deploy faster,” she adds.
